Team-BHP - BS6 Diesels: DPF clogging issues if driven just in the city?

Have any of your diesel BS6 engine cars given you any inconvenience due to DPF (diesel particulate filter) clogging, and if yes, how did you solve it? Could you mention the name(s) of the diesel BS-6 car(s)? Could you also mention the distance and duration of your usual short and long drives inside town/ city, and how often and for what distance and duration you drive on the highways regularly as part of your travel?

Do you recommend a petrol or electric car to avoid this potential nuisance in diesel BS-VI cars – if yes, for which category of users and for which type of vehicles (viz. hatchback, sedan, crossover, MUV, SUV etc.)? Kindly provide any other information that could help in a trouble-free drive of diesel BS VI cars to help me and other buyers.

My personal dilemma is whether I should buy a diesel BS6 Toyota Fortuner 4X2 AT or a hardly ever purchased, at least in Chennai and Bengaluru, petrol 4X2 automatic version (I am told that in some years they have not sold even one petrol Fortuner at dealerships in Chennai and Bengaluru!), considering that my primary use is inside Chennai with travel up to 10 kms at a time, and highway travel limited to only 3 to 4 times a year, totaling about 5000 to 10,000 kilometers in a year.

We are currently using a petrol Hyundai Creta automatic (torque converter) and a petrol Toyota Corolla Altis manual transmission which is more than 11 years old, and hence considering a replacement for the latter. Looking at the Fortuner from the 5-star crash test rating safety aspect, reliability (of the Toyota brand and the torque converter AT), SUV feel etc. We got to drive only the diesel 4X4 automatic and manual versions in 4X2 mode and enjoyed driving both, but do not know how the petrol AT drives since no dealer in Chennai or Bengaluru had a petrol Fortuner AT for test drive. Also, since hardly any petrol Fortuner is sold, we are concerned about the availability of spares, expertise in carrying out repairs, resale value etc. of a petrol Fortuner. What percentage of Toyota Fortuners sold in India are diesel and what percentage are petrol?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murugan (Post 5109698)

Could you mention the name(s) of the diesel BS-6 car(s)? Could you also mention the distance and duration of your usual short and long drives inside town/ city, and how often and for what distance and duration you drive on the highways regularly as part of your travel?

BS6 Ecosport diesel. 11k kms, of which ~85 percent were on the highways. I have not yet seen a DPF clogging/cleaning/regen message even once.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murugan (Post 5109698)

considering that my primary use is inside Chennai with travel up to 10 kms at a time, and highway travel limited to only 3 to 4 times a year, totaling about 5000 to 10,000 kilometers in a year.

I knew most of my mileage would be on the highways hence I went for a diesel. If your primary usage is going to be in the city, a petrol car seems more suited (still debatable). If you are not very particular about a fortuner sized vehicle, you should look at other options. I haven't driven a petrol fortuner but looking the numbers alone, ~62 bhp/ton seems a tad bit underpowered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murugan (Post 5109698)

I had two occurrences of DPF warning light showing up during intial days of corona in my vw golf here in Netherlands as the car all of a sudden became a city car (short distances once in many days) due to corona situation. I followed the manul and drove it above 4k rpm on highway for 10-15 minutes and it got cleared. After this, I always make sure that car gets driven on motorway for atleast 10-15 minutes every week and never had any warning lights thereafter.

Car with DPF or not. You need to take any car once a fortnight on a highway run with constant speeds. I have three diesel cars, I make sure to plan my usage so each car has its good run or I just drive the car for a night drive around Mumbai.

Reason? To Prevent Carbon Build up.

If you don't drive on the open road for 30-60mins every fortnight, your engine oil is going to get pretty dirty by blow by, especially in a diesel engine, which does a lot more volume of EGR. Short trips and cold starts exacerbate the formation of sludge in the inlet system and once its there, it stays.

My Seltos has never given me any problem with the DPF system.

I suggest get the diesel fortuner, they sell a lot more copies of it than the petrol one, you'll get better FE and better resale.

In Finland, I have now driven 2 DPF-equipped cars (both Skodas with 1.6L diesel) for more than 6 years and a combined total of more than 85000 km. I have never had a clogged DPF warning come on. Especially during the first two years, about 80% of my trips were under 7km.

After my company switched to remote working last year due to Corona, again a lot of my trips have been 7-8km in length. However, (1) I rarely have to drive in lot of traffic (2) Although trips are mostly short, some trips from one end of the city to the other or to neighbouring cities can be longer (about 30-40km) and these can be like mini-highway rides (speeds of upto 100kmph for some period of time). I have such trips maybe once a month.

My car- Hyundai Venue 1.5 Crdi.
Month & year of purchase - May 2020.
Period of ownership - Almost 15 months but car was stationary with zero running in September & October when covid caught me down quite badly and took almost 2 months to get in driving seat again.
Current odometer reading - 18900.
DPF warning - Not a single time.

My daily run consists of 70 km daily drive out of which only 4 km in city and rest all on National Highways. And to my benefit, the balance 66 kms consist of a majority of uphill climbs as well as plain roads for a while. But if I am not wrong, the second and third gear uphill drive is what, I think, is preventing me from facing a clogged filter.
It's usually said that a DPF car needs a highway drive, but if I am not wrong it's the engine RPM and exhaust temperature which prevents the clogging. It may be helpful for me in hills as an uphill climb will surely keep engine RPMs and exhaust temperature high enough to burn out the soot stored. This may not be the case in plains and big cities where you do need a long highway drive.
I am going slightly off topic and I may be attracting some eyeballs, but why do you need a burly Fortuner for a 10 km run in a crowded city where it may difficult to drive as well as park it?
Why not invest in a hot hatch and use the balance elsewhere?
Don't take me wrong, you might be having means to get a high end car, but a Fortuner size vehicle, which will spend more than 95% of its life time in city, with a mere 10 km run at a time, and 4-5 long distance outings is simply an overkill.
I could have easily bought of a top end Innova last year, without batting an eyelid but settled for a Venue as it's more about practicality rather than affordability.

Given your usage pattern, I would strongly recommend a petrol. A diesel would inevitably give problems unless you are able to run at over 60 kmph for 15-20 minutes at a stretch regularly, which I presume is not possible with your usage pattern.

Faced the same dilemma while looking for a new car earlier this year, and went for a Tiguan Allspace. Also evaluated the Innova Petrol - the only issue is how Toyota dealers discourage purchase of the Petrols - even the South Mumbai dealer told me he sells just 1-2 a year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 5110171)

No issues with my DPF diesel. Somehow or the other, I redline my cars frequently & a minimum of every alternate drive. In fact, I view this as an advantage of the DPF = you got one more excuse to find an open road and floor it :D.

I thought this was primarily a concern with BS6 diesel vehicles. Do you also have a BS6 diesel vehicle in your extended family garage or are you alluding to your 530d?

At about 3k Odo with BS4 fuel in my Seltos Diesel, DPF clogging percentage as informed by the service advisor was 75%. He cleaned it up with a 20 min stationary regen cycle at Kolhapur Service centre.

Later at 5k it was 73% with BS6 fuel as per Latur Service centre; I don't believe them! It was cleaned similarly.

At 7.5k it was again 88% with BS6 fuel and 1.5k rpm cruising on highways. It was my 10k service happened at end of one year due to low running in lockdown.
Hence never had a warning.

Also I am not sure of these outcomes, given that every time they service or clean the DPF, the DPF sensor placed at the very beginning of the exhaust pipe just after the turbo outlet is taken out and cleaned thoroughly.
They take the initial reading of DPF sensor (clogging) on laptop but the final reading after cleanup is not taken and also is of no use as the sensor is already cleaned manually.

I don't really know about DPF equipped cars, but our family owned BS6 Mahindra truck has an auto DPF-cleaner program which needs to run once the DPF warning light switches from amber to red. Basically, it requires the driver to stop the truck in a well ventilated area and it runs the engine at half throttle for 10-15 minutes until the exhaust sensors register a clean DPF. The idea behind high RPM operation is only to heat the filter assembly to about 400C. This can be achieved electrically too.

Maybe high end cars might "silently" run this program during the course of normal city/highway runs